My plumber stole my engagement and wedding rings – but I outsmarted him and got them back

A woman has opened up about how she outsmarted her conman plumber to get back the engagement and wedding rings he’d stolen from her.

Claire Standen took to her TikTok account, @the_claire_standen, to share how her plumber – whose identity she kept anonymous – took her jewelry from her cupboard while he was doing some work on her boiler. 

In a video titled “Master negotiator. How to outsmart a lying cheating dude,” Claire told her followers that she’d realized something was wrong when her daughter found the empty ring box under her bed. 

After experiencing a “sinking feeling,” alarm bells began to ring and Claire, who is no longer married to her partner, realized what had happened and sprung into action. 

She explained how she turned to two books for guidance, one called Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss and the other titled Instant Influence by Michael Pantalon. 

Claire continued: “I’d gone back through these books, I’d looked up some key phrases, I had some key ideas about how I was negotiating this.”

Armed with her expert advice, Claire then called the plumber from a different number to what he had for her so that he would definitely answer. 

Claire then said that step one is all about appearing to “recruit their help,” adding: “After all, they already think you’re stupid/helpless.”

She explained: “So I give him a ring and I say, ‘I wonder if you can help me – I’m having a really hard time trying to come to any other conclusion about what’s happened to my wedding and engagement ring then that you might have stolen them so could you help me with this problem.”

Reiterating that it’s important to tell them that they’re “obviously not under suspicion” and that you’re simply “appealing to their better nature,” Claire continued: “Obviously I’m not accusing you of anything, I just am having a really hard time figuring out what’s happened.”

The plumber responded with a string of excuses about how someone else must have taken them – even trying to implicate her ex. 

Claire added: “He was really trying to manipulate me into thinking that basically, I’d made a mistake, I was being stupid or had lost them myself.”

However, he finally agreed to meet with Claire face to face to discuss the situation.

Claire said: “I never accused him of stealing the rings but I said I was having a really hard time figuring out where they might have gone if it didn’t have something to do with him.

“He acted all offended but I’ve honestly never seen somebody be so drained of color in my entire life – he looked as sick as a dog.”

But thanks to Claire’s calm and collected approach, she eventually got them back. 

She concluded: “Finally, he asked me if he could come and show me what he’d done in the boiler. 

“He pointed up to the top of the cupboard and when I looked back down to close the cupboard, the rings were there – at his feet basically. He had dropped them.”

This story originally appeared on The Sun and has been reproduced here with permission.